An Ethiopian Airlines cargo flight bound from Ethiopia to Israel took off, only to circle around the airport and ultimately return to its origin. The reason? There was an Indonesian pilot onboard, so he had to be removed, and then the flight could continue.
Israel enforces new citizenship rules for airline crews
We recently saw a flydubai Boeing 737 pilot attempt to kill the captain on his flight, so that he could gain control of the aircraft, and crash it into Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport (TLV). Fortunately he was stopped thanks to the heroic captain and passengers, as this was so close to being a tragedy of unimaginable scale.
In light of that attempted terror attack, Israel has started formally restricting the nationalities of the pilots and flight attendants working flights to Israel. Long story short, crew members can not have citizenship in countries that don’t have diplomatic relations with Israel. Even dual citizenship is a disqualifier.
In theory there were previously some restrictions intended to be in place in these situations, but they weren’t consistently enforced. That brings us to this situation, where there absolutely was enforcement.
On Monday, October 12, 2026, an Ethiopian Airlines cargo Boeing 737 was supposed to operate from Addis Ababa’s Bole International Airport (ADD) to Tel Aviv. The plane took off at 1:40AM, with flight number ET3414. However, it didn’t make it very far.
The plane flew north toward Israel for around 30 minutes, before turning around, and then circling near Addis Ababa, reportedly to dump fuel. This was because there was an Indonesian pilot onboard, and anyone with Indonesian citizenship isn’t allowed to operate a flight to Israel.
The plane ended up landing back in Addis Ababa at 3:22AM local time, 1hr42min after it initially departed.
There was then a crew change, and at 5:41AM the plane once again took off to Tel Aviv, where it landed at 9:15AM, after a flight time of 3hr34min.
How was this crewing mistake made in the first place?
Obviously airlines have had to make quite some updates to their crew scheduling for Israel flights in recent times, given the new restrictions on pilots and flight attendants. In particular, even people with dual citizenship are being banned from flying to the country, so that’s leading to a logistical headache for airlines. For that matter, it relies on crews also being honest about their citizenship, since it can be easy enough to hide dual citizenship.
However, it shouldn’t be that hard to follow the rules. According to reports, Ethiopian Airlines only sent the crew manifest for this flight after the plane took off from Ethiopia. Then when the mistake was caught (almost immediately), the plane was forced to return to its origin.
So it sounds like Ethiopian Airlines should’ve caught the mistake before the flight even departed. For that matter, it’s puzzling how the plane was even allowed to depart without that list being submitted. I get that there’s a difference between departure clearance and landing clearance, but still…
Bottom line
An Ethiopian Airlines cargo jet flying from Addis Ababa to Tel Aviv had to turn around shortly after takeoff, after it was discovered that one of the pilots onboard was Indonesian. Israel has started banning crew members who hold citizenship with countries they don’t have diplomatic relations with, which is fair enough, in light of the shocking events.
In this case, the airline didn’t send the crew manifest until after takeoff, and then that ended poorly for the carrier. I’m sure airlines will soon get used to this strict system.
What do you make of this Ethiopian Airlines “flight to nowhere?”
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